Skimboarding, also called “skimming” is a boardsport in which a thin, typically fin-less board, i.e. a skimboard, is used to skim glide along the surface of water. Skimboards are typically smaller and lighter than surfboards, and are usually carried by a rider from a dry beach to a thin wash of beach break, and then dropped free into the water with as much forward momentum as possible or desired. Riders then run and hop onto the moving skimboard, and, use their momentum to skim along a thin layer of wash in a straight fashion or to perform tricks (called “flatlanding”), or to catch the wash out to the beach break, which a rider can then ride much like conventional surfing.
Conventional skimboards are controllable only by a rider's stance and weight shift. Problems can exist when a rider drops the skimboard onto the water, since the rider can no longer control the direction, speed or other movement of the skimboard until after only mounting the skimboard. Likewise, control of the direction, speed and movement of a mounted skimboard is limited to a stance and weight-shifting of a rider once the rider has mounted the skimboard.